Finishing Up Winter

Oh last of the winter veg boxes, you have forsaken me. Your 90 pounds of potatoes and onions are just really too much. (Although the dried beans and locally-sourced, organic tomato puree were a nice change.) But the root vegetables are just getting me down. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but there are only so many fries and fried parsnips that one person can take.

When all else fails, I go to the soup aisle of my cooking brain. After a bit of digging, I found this recipe from about.com that uses as many potatoes and onions as possible. The bonus? It’s Irish-style. And, aren’t we all just a bit Irish-style this weekend?

Potato Onion Soup, Irish-Style

4 T butter

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and sliced (I think I used four, but they were on the small-medium side.)

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and sliced

3 C milk

5½ C chicken stock

¼ C chopped fresh chives

½ t celery seeds

¼ t dried thyme, whole

2 T butter

2 T all-purpose flour

1 C light cream (I actually used sour cream. Call me crazy.)

Salt and pepper, to taste

¼ C chopped fresh chives

6 slices of lean bacon, crisply fried and chopped for garnish

Heat an 8-quart stockpot (and you will need a large size). Add 4 T butter and onion; cook gently. Do not let the onion brown. Add the potatoes and milk. Then, add the stock. Add ¼ C chives, celery seeds, and thyme. Cover and cook gently for about an hour.

Prepare the roux: Melt the remaining 2 T of butter in a small saucepan and whisk in the flour. Let the flour and butter mixture bubble for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. (You’re basically making a blonde roux.) Thicken the soup with the roux, whisking carefully to avoid lumps. Cook for 5-10 minutes longer.

Puree the soup in a food processor or with a food blender. (If you’re using a food processor, let the soup cool and work in batches. I used an immersion blender directly in the pot.)

Add the cream and gently reheat, but do not boil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with additional chives and bacon as garnishes.

Results

The soup is a pretty solid creamed potato soup. I don’t mean solid as brick solid, but rather a good go-to recipe for potato soup. It has just the right consistency—not a glutinous mess, but not overly watery. I served it with a side of rye bread. (My grocery store was out of pumpernickel. I think this would taste really good with pumpernickel.) It also needed a dash of Tabasco at the end, but that might just be me.

As you can see, I didn’t do the whole bacon garnish thing. I thought about crisping up bacon and then using the bacon fat to saute the onions. Perhaps next time.

In addition, the recipe says you can swap out leeks for the onions. Other suggestions included adding shrimp or lobster as garnishes